SELF KNOWLEDGE 



The test of your capacities begins to be made even 

 while you are at school, but the decisions of the school- 

 room are not to be taken as final. Many a youth with 

 small aptitude for book-studies proves an efficient 

 worker in the field of business, so soon as the chance 

 offers. But such cases are, after all, somewhat ex- 

 ceptional. As a general rule capacity to succeed in one 

 direction implies capacity to succeed in other directions, 

 though the element of actual, earnest effort must be 

 taken into account. Some students fail to get on be- 

 cause they do not really try to get on. In any event, 

 your earliest ventures in business or professional life 

 will give clues both as to your capacities and your real 

 interests that should not be lightly ignored. 



When these first practical efforts give assurance of 

 ability at all beyond the ordinary, there is one question 

 that comes to a very large majority of youth year by year, 

 the solution of which may determine almost everything, 

 pro or contra, concerning their future happiness. 

 This is the question of village-life versus city-life; for 

 it may be assumed that comparatively few of the leaders 

 of any generation are born in a city. In our day, as in 

 all previous generations, the country is the birth-place 

 of most men of power. But now as always, few indeed 

 are the men of power who are content to remain in 

 their natal villages, without at least casting wistful 

 glances towards the centres of population. 



To most young men, indeed, whatever their mental 

 status, it seems that life is stagnant in the village, and 

 that the city must have the stir and bustle that keep 

 men alive. To the metropolis flock the wealth and 



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